Arigato

Sometimes we do not do things because they seem to be difficult, but they are not. You just need to try to see that they are simple, very simple.

This is what happens when you try to cook sushi, or at least this is what Jaume has explained me, because last Saturday, while I was multitasking all around our place, he made this delicious sushi.

I am participating in a challenge, where 11 spanish bloggers without any knowledge of cooking try to prepare a new recipe every month. This month  María, from escarabajos, bichos y mariposas, suggested to cook sushi, maybe thinking that we are better cooks now than at the beginning of the year.

For me, sushi, as the typical Spanish paella, are these kind of dishes that only experts know how to cook properly, so I went to the supermarket with my shopping list and the feeling that it was going to be a disaster. Did you know that many sushi recipes contain mayonnaise? I did not.

If there is something that all Nordic countries have in common is that salmon is a delicacy in every format. So I decided to go for salmon sushi as well as avocado and cucumber.

What I didn't know when I went to the supermarket, and you should know if you're planning to cook salmon sushi, is that you should ask for beginning of the fish, rather than the tail.

Now I know, so the following  time I will remember this, as well as my list of ingredients, as this time we went easy and bought a kit box with everything on it.

Let's start, do we?

First step is to eliminate as much starch as possible from the rice. This will help the rice to stick together, so we can "build" the maki sushi better.

For that we have to wash it gently several times.

Once it is ready, we have to boil it. Accordingly to our recipe you need the same amount of water than the weight of rice. Easy.

At the end it's so sticky, that you can almost build cathedrals with it. :)

Now it's time to season it with sugar and rice vinegar. As we didn't have a hanguiri (a japanese bamboo basket) we used a baking pan from Lekué.

As you need to cool it down while you add the vinegar and the sugar, we used a Spanish fan for it. The poor one was forgotten in a drawer, as the Summer does not want to arrive to Helsinki. Are you hiding it from us? Because we are missing it.

Now we are ready to slice the filling,

and to put everything together. It is very handy to start with a ball of rice and then spread it along the alga.

You mustn't cover it completely or the roll will not close. Let a centimetre or so between the end of the rice and the beginning of the alga. Then add the filling, whatever you have chosen.

and close.

You can see here my favourite cook showing the world that you do not need to go to Japan for a high quality sushi at home.

When Jaume offered to help me with the recipe, I was so sure that everything was going to be ok, that I invited some friends for lunch. So while he was cooking, I was tiding the house, helping Pol to sleep his nap so we were able to have some adult time, stopping by to the kitchen for taking some pictures,..., you know, the normal multitasking stuff.

In the very last moment, I decided to prepare something for setting the table (a kind of collaboration in the making)

My first idea was an origami crane, but I didn't know how to do it and I was running against time, so I made a ship, something very easy that I learned when I was a little girl. At the end they turned to be a perfect stick holder.

Sticks dressed with washi tape and a no so perfect ship

The sushi was amazing and we will repeat for sure. Maybe next time I will join the cook and do something in the kitchen, although I have to admit that I prefer the niguiri type with much more raw fish than rice.

This that looks so incredible was our breakfast when we visited the fish market in Tokyo. An amazing place and a tasty sushi.

Do you fancy a walk after lunch?

Sayonara.